Dublin drunkenness

A drunken weekend in Dublin, how could it not be fun? My journey began Friday afternoon at Luton airport again, it took ten minutes to get from entrance to gate, then half an hour to get on the plane. Pretty uneventful flight, although it was interesting to see the difference between England and Ireland from the air. They are both patchworks of fields with hedges separating them, but Ireland is much greener and less uniform. Ireland managed to put on a great weekend for me too. Had to walk a mile to get to the terminal in Dublin though. Then I met Bob and caught the bus into Dublin City University, where he was staying in a pretty flash apartment in student accommodation. Had a reasonably quiet night as had to get up early for paintball, but we still managed to get denied entry to a pub as we were apparently too drunk. Seriously? not admitted to an Irish pub for being drunk? That's like, something you just don't expect to happen.

Saturday morning saw us travelling South to Kilruddery house near Bray to play paintball. 27 Euro for a days paintball they say. Yeah, right. More like 100. Still, 6 different arenas with full helmets, overalls, etc. Me and Bob were there with a Dublin Aussie rules team that include two Aussies, so a real UN style team. Went through several hundred rounds and wound up with a few bruises. We followed this up with a night out on the Guinness. It really does taste better in Ireland. We started off at a really tourist-oriented Irish pub called O'Donoghue's, with a fiddle band, Irish grub, even some Irish dancing. we then attempted to get into Flannery's, however the queue was around 100m long. So we went down the street to DTwo, as there was no queue. This we thought was a rather small place. Turns out it had around 7 bars, a huge covered garden, and ended up with a huge crowd. We stayed here until closing at 4am, caught a taxi back to DCU and got there at 5am.

Sunday was sightseeing day, well, half-day since I slept til noon. It was All-Ireland Gaelic Footy final day as well so town was full of red and green supporters of Kerry and Cork. Saw around five of the top 10 sights including Trinity college, Temple bar, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and the Guinness storehouse. Dublin doesn't have many tall buildings, from the Gravity bar at the top of the Guinness storehouse you can see from swerve of shore to bend of bay (James Joyce, was on the window). The storehouse is quite interesting, particularly the cooperage exhibit. This shows the history of cask-making in Dublin. Amazing how they make those things. We then went to a pub near the stadium and caught the end of the match. Once again, packed full of supporters. I had an early night Sunday as I had an early flight. I managed to get stuck behind Eastern Europeans who had trouble with visas for 15 mins, so wasn't exactly early to the gate. Still, got home alright. Ireland is on the list for a rerun, however I think I will see more than Dublin next time.

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The Devils hands are idle playthings

So back from holiday for nearly a month now and the weather here s definitely taking a downturn. Still, cannot be too upset, had a fantastic summer after all.

Unemployment kinda sucks. I mean sure, I have a lot of time on my hands, but how much time to I really need? Even when I was working I managed to get idle and watch reruns and documentary's about things I had no interest in. Still, I haven't been entirely idle. Signed up to 2 employment agencies and another teacher recruitment agency. Even joined some of those paid survey websites to try and make a few extra bucks. The extra free time has also given me a chance to really explore St Albans. You see quite a lot going for a walk on a week day morning. I have even done some long circuits, 12km the other week.

Off to Dublin this weekend to see Bob. Yeah I know, shouldn't be spending money when I don't have any coming in but how often do I get to see one of the crew from home? Not enough these days it seems anyway. It should be a lot of fun, and hopefully I will have some work to come back to. The teaching vacancies have been increasing daily it seems.